Subsistence styles shape human social learning strategies.

ABSTRACT: Social learning is a fundamental element of human cognition. Learning from others facilitates the transmission of information that helps individuals and groups rapidly adjust to new environments and underlies adaptive cultural evolution1-6. While basic human propensities for social learning are traditionally assumed to be species-universal1,7, recent empirical studies show that they vary between individuals and populations8-13. Yet the causes of this variation remain poorly understood9. Here we show that interdependence in everyday social and economic activities can strongly amplify social learning. With an experimental decision-making task we examine individual versus social learning in three recently diverged populations of a single-ethnic group, whose subsistence styles require varying

SUBMITTER: Glowacki L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5444520 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature